Happy Birthday, GENIUS: The Stablecoin Law Turns One, Still Waiting on Its Rulebook 🎂

The GENIUS Act marked its one-year anniversary on July 18, with the U.S. stablecoin law signed by President Donald Trump on the same date in 2025 now entering its second year still without finalized implementing regulations. Federal agencies including the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) continue to draft rules covering customer identification, anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions compliance, liquidity, and capital requirements, with public consultation periods still open. The statute requires payment stablecoins to be backed one-to-one with cash or other highly liquid assets and establishes baseline principles for management, transparency, and financial crime controls over reserves. Despite the open rulebook, banks, fintech firms, and payment providers have moved ahead with blockchain-based payment product initiatives over the past twelve months, citing the law's framework as sufficient directional clarity for early-stage deployment. Attention in Washington is now turning to the CLARITY Act, with market participants watching whether a companion bill for broader digital asset market structure will advance along a similar legislative track to the GENIUS Act. No official launch date, implementation timetable, or final rule text has been published by the named agencies as of the one-year mark, and the relevant federal consultations remain listed as ongoing in public dockets. Industry filings and public comments submitted during the consultation windows continue to be reviewed by Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, and the OCC, with each agency retaining independent authority over its respective rulemaking track. The GENIUS Act itself remains on the books as enacted, and its core reserve and disclosure requirements apply to covered payment stablecoin issuers regardless of the status of the implementing regulations.